Looking for ways to delight our merchants. A note from Brian. January 1st, 2008
Happy New Year!
I want to thank everyone who has been involved with SingleFeed; employees (go team!), investors, advisors, shopping engines, and most importantly, merchants.
Building a business is not easy. When I raised money for SingleFeed in February of 2007, I was gently reminded (with a sledgehammer) by my investors that it would take twice as long and cost twice as much to reach my incredibly optimistic goals. Well, they were correct. But that doesn’t mean SingleFeed struck-out. It also doesn’t mean that we hit one out of the park.
2007 was a challenging year for SingleFeed. We’ve definitely stumbled at times and continue to run up against serious challenges. We’re in the software business and therefore ugly bugs have and will continue to pop up. We don’t have all the features that our merchants need or want, and I don’t think we’re releasing new features at a fast enough clip. We’ve made mistakes and will continue to make mistakes.
As the CEO, it pains me to write all this, but I want to be honest with you.
What excites me…what keeps me going, is the incredible potential I see. Even with our shortcomings, we’ve taken a big step in the right direction and come a long way in a short time. Most importantly, we’ve helped hundreds of merchants succeed on the shopping engines. And our commitment to do just that hasn’t changed. It’s what has attracted hundreds of merchants and will drive the success of the company.
2007 was about building a foundation to make SingleFeed into a great company. This foundation includes people, technology, and service.
2008 is about delighting our merchants. We’ll still make mistakes. We’ll still have to drudge through bugs. But we’ll have a laser focus on delighting our merchants. This delight will come in many forms; expect better ways to create, submit, manage, and optimize your data feeds. Right now I don’t think merchants love their feeds. We want to change that. We’ll need your help along the way, and we look forward to working together and listening intently to your feedback to dramatically improve SingleFeed.
Again, thanks for your support and encouragement in 2007. Hope you’re ready for a great ride in 2008!
-brian